Sutter Health CEO Pat Fry to Retire in January, 2016

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- After a 30-plus-year career with Northern California's not-for-profit Sutter Health network of doctors and hospitals -- including the past 10 years as president and chief executive officer -- Pat Fry announced today he will retire on Jan. 4, 2016.

In 1982 after earning a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Davis and a master's degree from George Washington University, Fry joined Sutter Health as an administrative resident at Sacramento's Sutter General Hospital. In just 10 years, he rose to the position of CEO of Sutter General and Memorial hospitals. Fry went on to hold region and division executive leadership positions, assuming the position of Sutter Health's chief operating officer in 2000. He became president and CEO in 2005.

Legacy of Achievement

"Pat leaves an incredible legacy of achievement and decisive strategies to improve quality, access and affordability," said Sutter Health Board Chair Todd Smith, M.D. "Under Pat's leadership, Sutter Health became a national leader in clinical quality and greatly expanded community access to healthcare in big cities and small towns throughout Northern California."

Fry, 57, also led multiple initiatives to deliver quality care and service in a more efficient manner. Each day, Sutter Health's acclaimed Advanced Illness Management (AIM) program, for example, helps improve quality of life for more than 2,000 patients with advanced, chronic illness. In addition to substantially reducing unnecessary hospitalizations, the model program has avoided tens of millions of dollars in reimbursement.

Fry's achievements include the creation of the Sutter Medical Network, which unites Sutter's 5,000 aligned and affiliated physicians around common quality commitments; My Health Online, which provides more than 1 million Northern Californians with anytime online access to their personal health records; and the growing Sutter Health Plus health plan.

During Fry's tenure, Sutter Health's annual revenues grew from $6.7 billion to more than $10 billion. While consistently achieving strong financial performance during Fry's tenure, Sutter Health made record investments in care for the underserved. The network's total investment in charity care and community benefit exceeded $6 billion over the past decade, and Sutter hospitals annually care for more Medi-Cal patients in Northern California than any other healthcare provider organization.

"As a not-for-profit organization, Sutter Health reinvests its earnings back into the community," said Dr. Smith. "Our strong financial performance allowed Sutter Health to invest more than $9 billion over the past decade to continue installing Sutter's electronic health record in our physician care centers and hospitals, and to embark on one of the largest facility infrastructure improvement projects in the nation."

Under Fry's leadership, Sutter Health has built or replaced more than a dozen acute care hospitals and major outpatient facilities and established numerous new physician care centers around Northern California.

Sarah Krevans Assumes President and CEO Role in January 2016

Sutter Health's chief operating officer since 2012 and a Sutter Health executive for 16 years, Krevans, 56, has provided strong leadership and clear vision borne of nearly 30 years of executive experience in the healthcare field.

"Sarah is a respected, community-minded leader who is exceptionally well qualified to assume the role of Sutter Health's chief executive," said Dr. Smith.

"Our nationally recognized talent review and succession planning program allows us to cultivate leaders from within, and the Sutter Health Board and I identified Sarah early on to one day assume my role," said Fry. "I encourage other organizations to invest in their teams and to take time to mentor and plan for succession, so they experience smooth transitions in leadership."

As a young adult, Krevans held entry-level jobs in care facilities for people with severe mental illness and the frail elderly -- experiences that deeply influenced her professional path. Believing the American healthcare system was in disrepair, she embarked upon a career in healthcare administration, earning master's degrees in both business administration and public health from the University of California, Berkeley after receiving a bachelor's degree from Boston University.

At 29, she was appointed acting director of Medicaid, health planning and licensure programs for the state of Maine after serving as deputy director of the state's Bureau of Medical Services.

Krevans returned to California in 1987 to join Kaiser Permanente, serving as assistant administrator at Kaiser's South San Francisco medical center, as medical group administrator of The Permanente Medical Group Sacramento and later as senior vice president and area manager of Kaiser's vast, six-county Valley Service Area serving more than a half-million members.

In 1999 Krevans joined the Sutter Health not-for-profit network as senior vice president of managed care, and soon thereafter was named regional executive officer and president of the Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region, with responsibility for operations throughout the San Joaquin Valley and Greater Sacramento Valley areas. In her regional role, Krevans worked to strengthen relationships with Sutter Health's physician community, and expanded and enhanced patient service lines, including neurosciences and cancer care. She and her team also developed a successful and much-admired community-based program to connect Sacramento-area homeless populations with critical primary care and social services.

Krevans is past chair of the northeastern California chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Sierra Forever Families. In 2011 Northern California's Women Healthcare Executives named her Woman of the Year. In the same year, she received the Humanitarian of the Year award from United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Sacramento.